Team Astana riders take home three national titles

Three Team Astana riders won their respective national titles this week, with two victories taken in the time trial and one on the road. Kazakhstan's ProTeam was able to take home their national time trial with Dmitri Gruzdev, making it his second consecutive year in the jersey.

The Kazakh race was held in Taldykorgan, which is in the eastern part of the country, approximately 300 kilometers north of Almaty. Astana's Continental team secured the other two spots on the podium, with Alexey Lutsenko in second and Daniel Fomin third.

“Gruzdev was the favourite and lived up to the predictions in this ride on the steppe, where the wind made the race even more difficult," explained Directeur Sportif Dmitri Sedoun. "Our monopoly on the podium confirms that we are doing good work and that right now the best Kazakh cyclists ride for Astana.”

Gruzdev finished second in the Asian Cycling Championships individual time trial earlier this year and has top ten finishes in stages of the Tour de Langkawi and the Presidential Tour of Turkey.

Estonian Tanel Kangert took advantage of his good form to become the Estonian national champion on the road. He rode to victory in the Queen Stage of the Tour de Suisse less than a week ago, which also helped him to finish second in the mountains classification there. Kangert finished second in the national time trial championship just two days ago, with his other top results of the season coming in team time trials at the Giro d'Italia and the Giro del Trentino.

Andriy Grivko, who had previously been Ukrainian National Time Trial Champion four times, managed to ride to his fifth national title. Along with 2012, he has also taken the victory in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. This marks Ukranian's first victory of the season, with his next best result being the prologue in the Critérium du Dauphiné where he finished in third.